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Le
notizie relative al debito estero e all'economia del Kenya
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14
giugno 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Debt waiver a misnomer Publication
Date: 06/14/2005
Reports that Kenya will miss out on the
debt waiver by the group of Eight most industrialised nations,
better known as the G8, has raised some debate. Yet, for
Kenya, several things worked against the waiver. They include
corruption in high places, mismanagement of public resources and
failure to meet some of the IMF/World Bank conditionalities for
donor assistance. These have made it difficult to justify
more external assistance. The other side, though, is the
argument that, in comparative terms, Kenya is doing better than
many African states. That is to say, Kenya is not a basket case
and, therefore, does not deserve a waiver under the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) scheme. Predictably, our
leaders are now engaged in a chorus of recrimination, totally
oblivious of their own role in the debacle. Many are shouting the
country's good record at debt servicing as a reason for debt
forgiveness, as others claim the G8 are out to economically
strangle the country. But that misses the point. There is no
honour in seeking a debt waiver. In fact, what the leaders should
be working for is to create an environment for economic growth
and where individuals can be assisted to realise their full
potential. Among others, this means eliminating graft, ending
mismanagement of national resources and instilling discipline
into the public service. Similarly, they need to learn
diplomacy. The practice where some leaders throw vitriol and
insults at diplomats and representatives of donor agencies does
not give the country a good name internationally. It is not
the end of the road for debt forgiveness, though. Kenya can still
make its case before the next G8 meeting. Tanzania and Uganda,
along with 16 other African nations have done so and have been
rewarded handsomely. But the bigger picture is that the
country should work towards self-sufficiency and avoid the path
of donor dependence, which then later forces us to behave in such
a beggarly manner.
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13
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD Shock as Kenya denied debt relief Monday
June 13, 2005 Biketi Kikechi and Ben Agina
Kenya’s
exclusion from a multi-billion debt write-off by the World Bank
and IMF for Africa’s poor countries was received with shock
and consternation yesterday. Finance ministers from the G8
countries did not enlist Kenya among 18 poor countries whose
debts will be cancelled by the three multi-lateral donors. They,
however, took off the burden of repaying the debts from the
shoulders of Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda — Kenya’s
major trading partners. The beneficiaries are classified as
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). Disappointment that
Kenya would still have to part with Sh78 billion a year servicing
debts owed to multi-lateral and bilateral lenders was compounded
by the fact that it is the only country in East Africa that
failed to clinch the relief deal. Kenya’s debt as of
April 30 stood at Sh720 billion or 57 per cent of the Gross
Domestic Product. Of the total Sh424 billion was external and
Sh296 billion was domestic. The principal amount the Treasury
pays every year is Sh25 billion with an additional Sh8 billion in
interest and penalties. If freed through a write-off, the money
could be used to turn around key sectors such as education,
health and tourism. A debt-relief lobby group for Africa is
sending nine members to Scotland to present the continent’s
case at the G8-Leaders conference. Leaders said they felt
Western economic giants wanted to emasculate the country
economically. The chairman of Parliamentary House Finance
committee Mutahi Kagwe said HIPC structure appeared to reward
countries that have not lived up to their commitment of repaying
loans to bi-lateral and multi lateral lenders. He said Kenya
had always met its debt obligations but has never benefited from
relief. "We have always paid our debts in spite of the
economic hardships," he said. He said the principle under
which HIPC was created amounts to "miscarriage of justice".
The Murkurweni MP charged that it was not fair for Kenya to be
penalised for continuing to pay its debt whereas countries that
cannot pay are the ones whose debts are being
cancelled. Assistant Minister for Trade Petkay Miriti
described the situation as "very unfortunate indeed."
He was concerned Kenya had met all conditions imposed by western
capital over time and yet the goal posts kept changing. Miriti,
claimed the aim was "to see the country lagging behind
others in the region." "It will be difficult for us
because our neighbours will be investing that money in services
and mobilizing trade when we are servicing debts," said
Miriti. The Assistant Minister urged donor countries to treat
all sub-Saharan countries equally, if they were serious about the
continent’s economic problems. Cabinet Minister William
ole Ntimama whose docket includes the public service said the
country should now work hard to survive without foreign aid. "We
should consider finding ways of working without depending on aid
and that can only be achieved through unity and hard work,"
said Ntimama. "I do not know if the reasons they usually
give and that is bad governance and corruption but it will
definitely hurt us," he added. Assistant minister for
Finance Henry Obwocha said the Kenya was not been considered in
the category of the Highly Indebted Countries but was optimistic
its turn would come soon. "Kenya is not among countries
that do not service its debts," said Obwocha. He promised to
lead a Kenyan delegation to Geneva, Switzerland on June 20 to a
debt management conference where he hopes to state the country’s
case. "We hope to be considered for debt relief after this
meeting," said Obwocha. Kabete MP Paul Muite called on
Kenyan leaders to stop whining about the debt waiver initiated by
Britain and draw up the country’s own strategy. "We
should suspend payment of the debt for five years and redeploy
the money to needy sectors such as Education, Health and
infrastructure," Muite said. However, he explained that
although this was radical move it was the only way that the
country could develop. "We need to take radical steps to
re-energise our economy. One such step is to suspend repayment of
foreign loans," he said Former Kenya Association of
Manufacturers chairman Manga Mugwe said the country would have
accelerated growth had debt been cancelled. He said interests
paid annually could have given provided a major economic boost to
sectors such as infrastructure. He was pessimistic about the
future of the East African Economic, saying Kenya needed to
review its position. "The economic partnerships will not
last, because you cannot sit and do business with a neighbour who
has been given all advantages over you," said Mugwe. The
Chambers lobby group that for many months lobbied for debt relief
said its members would head for Scotland to present their case.
The Chief Counsel Ababu Namwamba said the lobby has prepared a
special documentary called A Mortgaged Nation to be presented to
G8 leaders. "I will be there with nine members and enjoin
other civil society groups from the continent to present our
case," said Namwamba.
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13
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD Government to continue paying the price of
foreign debt Monday June 13, 2005 By John Oyuke
The
failure by a group of rich nations to cancel Kenya’s
external debt is likely to complicate the poverty eradication and
regional integration efforts. Cancellation of the country’s
crushing external debt estimated at Sh402.2 billion, just
slightly below the Sh404.3 billion recurrent expenditure for the
2005/06 financial year, would have offered a year of tax holiday
for Kenyans. The Government’s expects to raise Sh296.1
billion directly through taxation as part of its revenue target
of Sh326.1 billion or 22 per cent of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). The gross expenditure includes Sh27.1 billion in aid,
ministerial expenditures of Sh257 billion and Sh147.3 billion for
Consolidated Fund Services which, among others, consists of
Sh26.9 billion for payment of interest on domestic and foreign
debt. Of the consolidated services, Sh23.4 billion is for
pensions and gratuities, Sh5.3 billion for salaries, allowances
and operational expenses for constitutional offices, Sh133
million in contributions to international organisations and
Sh87.9 billion for debt repayment. Debt cancellation is
considered important to the shift of resources to reducing
poverty, hunger and disease, which are key to realising the UN
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Kenya may soon lose its
competitive edge against Uganda and Tanzania, given their
treatments under arrangements such as the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) initiative. Rwanda has been included in the HIPC
initiative. Kenya is on the HIPC initiative list, but is
considered to have a sustainable debt burden, according to the
official HIPC initiative criteria, driven mainly by the
International Monetary Fund and Word Bank. However, trade
experts believe that, like Nigeria, the exclusion from HIPC is
been driven more by persistent concerns about economic and
political management, despite the change in leadership. State
leaders had hoped to be granted some debt relief. Speaking last
month before the new development, ministers Anyang’
Nyong’o, Charity Ngilu and Ochilo Ayacko said the
Government would step up efforts to convince donors to cancel its
debts. Nyong’o said the State would use the G8 meeting
set for July to pressure for inclusion in the Global African
Social Facility to Aid initiative.
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12
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD Kenya may miss debt relief Sunday -
June 12, 2005
Government’s minimal success in the
fight against graft limits chances of debt cancellation, writes
Otsieno Namwaya in London. Kenya’s chances of gaining
from British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s campaign for the
cancellation of Africa’s debts appear slim following an
announcement that the programme will only benefit countries
willing to carry out reforms to stem corruption and ensure good
governance. Ian Gleeson, an officer at the Foreign Affairs
office told The Sunday Standard in London that if and when it
finally rolls out, the programme would only benefit governments
willing to meet conditions set out by the United Kingdom. "Debt
relief is going to be based on certain agreements with each
government. We shall give relief only on condition that
government officials agree to carry out certain reforms,"
Gleeson said. However, he was quick to point out that the
conditions would not be laid down in a similar manner to those of
the World Bank and IMF. "We are going to be more like
partners with clear agreements," he said. Among other
things, the programme will lay emphasis on good governance and
the war against corruption, issues over which the Kenya
government has been at loggerheads with outgoing British High
Commissioner, Sir Edward Clay. When confronted about his vocal
condemnation of graft, Clay said he was merely voicing the
concerns of his government. This will be the second time the
country is missing out on incentives for economic growth extended
by its development partners. In 1996, Kenya failed to meet
most of the conditions then required to benefit from the now
moribund Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) programme fronted by
the World Bank and the IMF. Blair has been seeking to have the
Group of Eight richest countries relieve Africa of its $20
billion debt burden. Blair’s new initiative seems to
complement the on-going Africa Debt Relief Campaign mounted by
Nobel Peace Prize winner and assistant minister for Environment,
Prof Wangari Maathai. Her lobbying has taken her to several
countries in Europe and Asia. Since the 1990s when most
development partners suspended economic aid to Kenya, the
country’s debt portfolio has risen tremendously. Sometimes,
interest on debts almost overshadows national Gross Domestic
Product. While the external debt portfolio stabilised mainly
due to the freeze on development support, domestic debt rose
significantly as the government resorted to borrowing heavily
from the internal market. Five years ago, Kenya’s GDP
stood at $10.4 billion with an external debt of $6.34 billion.
Today, the country’s external debt is estimated at $9
billion. The government reportedly uses about 40 per cent of its
annual expenditure to finance interest on this debt. Five
years ago, funds spent on debt servicing and interest payments
totalled $706 million while money earned from the export of goods
and services amounted to $2.84 billion. This was as compared
to import earnings which stood at $3.57 billion. Simply put,
Kenya had a net deficit of $737 million. Five years ago, the
country’s current account balance which is an indicator of
foreign transactions on its income stood at $326 million. Foreign
debt stood at $6.34 billion of which $2.61 billion or 41 per cent
was owed to the World Bank and the IMF. Last week, Blair while
speaking on BBC TV said debt cancellation for Africa was bound to
spark off economic development that could turn out to be
"beneficial to Britain in the long run". United
States President George W Bush has been reluctant to lend support
to Blair’s campaign, instead offering token amounts of
money for famine relief in Africa. Earlier in the week, Bush
parried off Blair’s entreaties with some $674 million for
emergency famine relief in the continent. This may well end
the possibility of 100 per cent relief from an estimated $50
billion that Africa owes the World Bank, IMF and other
international financial institutions. The United States is the
biggest contributor to the World Bank and the IMF. A section
of the UK media has been calling on Blair to go ahead and table
his $20 billion debt relief proposal before the G8 summit next
month, even if Bush fails to support it. Many have questioned
Bush’s refusal to support Blair in his hour of need when
the British premier nearly laid down his political career to
support the US on its war against terrorism in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
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11
giugno 2005
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REPUBBLICA
ON LINE [www.repubblica.it] Accordo tra gli 8 paesi più
ricchi - Cancellato il debito di 18 nazioni sabato
11 giugno 2005
Londra, il G8 ha deciso di
tagliare 55 miliardi dovutialla Banca mondiale e al Fondo
monetario internazionale. Si tratta di somme da restituire a
Banca mondiale e Fmi - Ma è solo una parte del loro
indebitamento estero
LONDRA - Un colpo di spugna su
cinquanta miliardi di dollari. I paesi del G8 hanno deciso di
cancellare il 100% del debito di 18 paesi poveri, soprattutto
africani. L'accordo è stato raggiunto dai ministri delle
Finanze degli otto paesi più industrializzati, riuniti a
Londra. Saranno annullati immediatamente 55 miliardi di dollari,
una somma che doveva essere restituita agli organismi finanziari
internazionali, Banca mondiale, Fondo monetario e Banca africana
di sviluppo. L'occasione giusta per essere audaci. "E'
l'intesa più ampia mai raggiunta dai ministri finanziari
in materia di debito e povertà", ha detto Gordon
Brown, ministro delle Finanze britannico, che ha annunciato
l'accordo. "Era l'occasione giusta per essere audaci",
ha aggiunto, precisando che entro 12-18 mesi, potrà essere
cancellato il debito di altri nove paesi. Il ministro italiano
dell'Economia, Domenico Siniscalco, parla di "intesa
epocale", mentre l'americano John Snow, segretario del
Tesoro, lo definisce "un momento storico". Una
cancellazione parziale. I paesi che beneficeranno immediatamente
della cancellazione del debito sono Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso,
Etiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Onduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania,
Mozambico, Nicaragua, Niger, Ruanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda e
Zambia. Complessivamente 6 miliardi di dollari verranno
cancellati dal Fondo monetario, 44 dalla Banca Mondiale e 5 dalla
Banca africana per lo sviluppo. Questi 40 miliardi di dollari,
però, sono solo una parte dell'indebitamento estero di
questi paesi. Esso si compone, infatti, di debiti bilaterali, da
restituire direttamente ai paesi ricchi che avevano prestato il
denaro, e di debiti multilaterali, da pagare agli organismi
internazionali. Secondo i dati della Banca Mondiale, il debito
estero complessivo dei paesi dell'Africa sub-sahariana era di 231
miliardi di dollari nel 2003. Solo il 30% (circa 69 miliardi) di
questa somma era dovuto ai donatori multilaterali, ossia Banca
mondiale e Fondo monetario internazionale. Le reazioni nel
mondo. Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, alcune delle nazioni che hanno
ottenuto la cancellazione, hanno accolto positivamente la
notizia. Moderatamente soddisfatti anche i sostenitori della
campagna per la cancellazione del debito. "L'accordo è
una buona notizia per la gente dei 18 paesi che ne beneficieranno
- ha detto Romily Greenhill, della ong ActionAid - Ma non avrà
alcun effetto per quei milioni di persone che vivono negli altri
paesi (almeno 40) che hanno bisogno di un'immediata cancellazione
totale del debito". Henry Northover, analista di Cafod,
aggiunge: "Dobbiamo mettere fine a questo approccio di tipo
tradizionale all'Africa. Il debito è solo una parte del
problema. Bisogna ora aumentare gli aiuti fino a 50 miliardi di
dollari all'anno". E in Italia. "Finalmente un
piccolo gesto concreto. Quaranta miliardi di dollari, però,
sono davvero un'inezia - commenta Sergio Marelli, presidente
delle Ong italiane - La cancellazione totale del debito dei paesi
più poveri è assolutamente alla portata dei governi
del G8". Scettico anche Vittorio Agnoletto,
europarlamentare indipendente del Prc, per il quale si tratta di
un "importante passo in avanti", da sottoporre però
a verifica, visto che in passato gli impegni sono stati spesso
annunciati e non rispettati. "E' un passo importante, ma
ancora insufficiente rispetto alle esigenze in gioco - dice
Riccardo Moro, direttore della Fondazione "Giustizia e
Solidarietà", promossa dalla Cei per proseguire la
campagna giubilare per la cancellazione del debito. "Parlare
di decisione storica o epocale, come hanno fatto i ministri del
G8 - aggiunge - è francamente fuori luogo e rischia di
rasentare il cattivo gusto". Intanto si muove anche il
cantante Bob Geldof, organizzatore del "Live 8", il
concertone intercontinentale in favore dei paesi poveri. In vista
del G8 con in capi di Stato e di governo che si terrà il
6-7-8 luglio in Scozia, sta cercando di portare a Gleaneagle,
sede dei lavori, un milione di persone per ottenere più
aiuti per l'Africa.
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8
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD High Military Spending to Raise Eyebrow June
8, 2005 Benson Kathuri
The Government has raised
military expenditure by Sh5.3 billion even though there is no war
looming. The amount is far higher than the supplementary
amount given to the crucial Health Ministry that is touted as the
main pro-poor target. "We cannot talk of economic
development when the people are dying," said Mwiraria when
he launched the Budget estimates on Monday. He defended
increases made to ministries of Health, Education and Water, but
the huge increase in military expenditure now casts doubts on the
Government's commitment to the fight poverty. Kenyans,
especially the opposition MPs have frequently complained over the
excessive military spending and even suggested that the military
personnel be re-deployed to help in social programmes like road
construction to give reason for such huge spending. The
allocation to the defence department has now risen to Sh23.1
billion, up from Sh17.8 billion allotted last year. The new
expenditure is likely to raise eyebrows among the international
lenders who have been pushing Mwiraria to focus expenditure on
pro-poor programmes. The estimates also failed to reveal how
the money will be spent, hence denying the public the chance to
track down the expenditure. According to the estimates, it
showed that only Sh198.3 million will be spent on non-uniformed
personnel and there is no indication how the remaining balance
would be used. The International Monetary Fund team that is
already in the country may raise questions over the expenditure.
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8
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD Slums Get Sh500 Million June 8,
2005
The upgrading of urban slums is likely to speed up
following the Government's decision to increase allocations to
the programme. Budget estimates released ahead of budget
reading today indicates that the Government will spend Sh500
million on the programme in the next fiscal year. Despite the
increase, questions still linger as to the Government's
commitment to its promise to construct 150,000 housing units
annually. Construction of the target units was not only to be
realised through the slum upgrading programme but also completion
of stalled housing projects and the promotion of special purpose
vehicles. Not much has came out of the programme in the form
of special purpose vehicles nor has the Capital Markets Authority
played any significant role in the current fiscal year. The
objective of the slum upgrading and low-cost housing programme is
to improve the living conditions of millions of urban poor in
Nairobi and Mombasa. Under the programme, the Government was
to develop slum upgrading and relocation plans including land
adjudication and registration, expansion of water network and
sanitation facilities, provision of electricity distribution
points and up-grading of roads. The Government was also to enact
a housing legislation to facilitate private sector expansion of
low cost housing and financing. Besides, the state was to
provide a conducive environment for private sector participation
in construction of low cost housing in selected town under
concessionary terms. Despite the significant shift in resource
allocation for slum upgrading, it is not clear whether the
Government is still keen on pursuing the promise it made on the
provision of affordable housing for all Kenyans. When the Narc
government came to power in December 2002, it promised to provide
150,000 housing units per year. It is estimated that the
Government has only built 335 housing units since it took over
power against an expected cumulative total of 300,000. Despite
the conduct of a ground-breaking ceremony for 554 houses in
Nairobi's Langata estate early this year no progress has been on
site. By now, the Narc government should have built 300,000
houses, according to Kitutu Chache MP Jimmy Angwenyi. "So
far only 335 housing units have been built. It is shocking,"
he told Parliament last month. He said Government had failed
to provide the necessary incentives to prospective investors in
the sub-sector. Angwenyi said a Kenyan based in the United States
had expressed interest in building 60,000 houses but failed to
get the necessary concessions from government. Another
investor of Asian origin was ready to construct 30,000 houses in
Mombasa and an Arab constructor had indicated his readiness to
built 20,000 units in Nairobi but were discouraged by lack of
incentives. Early last year, the Government denied that it had
blocked the Dominion Group of companies from investing in
low-cost housing in Nairobi. Treasury said the group was
denied a tax break "because tax holidays were available only
to firms operating in the Export Processing Zones." Finance
minister David Mwiraria said there was no legal provision to
extend tax holidays to businesses operating in the domestic
market. In January this year, the Government snubbed attempts
by its wholly-owned National Housing Corporation (NHC) to have it
guarantee a Sh5 billion housing bond at the Nairobi Stock
Exchange. Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua said that
the corporation's financial status was questionable and could not
be guaranteed by the Government. The move was the final blwo
to a deal that would have set pace for other organisations to go
into the market to raise money for developing houses.
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7
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD African States Unite in Debt Cancellation
Calls June 7, 2005 Eliud Miring'uh
Calls for the
world's richest countries to cancel debts owed by African states
dominated a regional meeting in Nairobi yesterday. Delegates
vowed to lobby for the cancellation of the debts ahead of the G8
Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, next month. The about 50
delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Eritrea had
gathered at the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref)
headquarters to review a final report by the Commission for
Africa (CFA). The report is on problems in Africa and proposed
solutions. The CFA launched the report in March, and it has
been the subject of debate in northern and southern Africa. The
southern African countries held a summit in Cape Town last week,
where they discussed the report's implications to the
continent. The 17-member CFA, with nine representatives from
Africa, was set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair last
year. It was mandated to study challenges facing Africa and
recommend solutions. Blair, who will be the next President of
the G8 and the European Union, hopes to table the commission's
final report at the July Summit and use the recommendations to
lobby for cancellation of debts. Opening yesterday's meeting,
Planning minister Prof Anyang' Nyong'o commended the report for
highlighting the eradication of poverty and corruption, and good
governance, among other issues. He said the poverty issues
were in line with principles of the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (Nepad). "If the CFA recommendations are
implemented, they will help realise Nepad's vision of a
socio-economic transformation agenda for Africa," said the
minister. Some of those present were outgoing British High
Commissioner Sir Edward Clay, Amref director-general Michael
Smalley and CFA commissioner, William Kalema. Nyong'o said the
report had identified corruption as a main impediment to Africa's
growth, and it should be tackled. He said for the continent to
conquer corruption, it had to allow a free press and a dynamic
civil society. Dr Smalley said over 5,000 people died everyday
of Aids in Africa and 40 million children were out school due to
poverty. "Corruption is a subject that has featured
prominently as an impediment to Africa's progress (but) it is not
unique to Africa. It is a battle that can be fought and won,"
said the Minister.
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5
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD Aid for the Rich June 5, 2005 Alex
Chamwada
As poverty reduction efforts take centre stage,
reports emerge that money meant for Third World countries does
not reach intended beneficiaries British Prime Minister Tony
Blair embarked on a marathon mission this week to convince
western countries to increase aid to Africa. He is also set to
take his campaign to America. But as Blair intensified his
efforts, a research in Britain revealed that well-heeled
consultants and companies in the West are the biggest
beneficiaries of the global aid system. According to the
research, less than 40 pence in every pound goes to poverty
eradication efforts in the developing world. The Guardian of
May 27, 2005, published the shocking findings of the research
conducted by Action Aid. All indications are that the bulk of the
money currently disbursed as aid is wasted, misdirected or
recycled within rich countries. The report says that 61 per cent
of aid flow is phantom rather than real, rising to almost 90 per
cent in France and the United States. The revelation comes
barely a month before the UK takes over the chair of the G8,
which Blair sees as an ideal opportunity to increase aid for
Africa. When he launched the Commission for Africa, Blair said
the continent was "a scar on the conscience of the world".
However, critics say rather than being a scar, the continent is
actually a guinea pig for the West. Economic experts say it is
the West that impoverished Africa through capitalism, colonialism
and slavery and, infact, continues to do so. It is in Africa that
economic, social, political, scientific and military experiments
are carried out. Furthermore, the West has been accused of
contributing to brain drain in Africa, the worst hit sector being
health. The British Medical Association has accused the UK of
crippling sub-Saharan Africa's healthcare system by poaching
staff. This development has received generous coverage in the
press with doctors proposing that the UK employs more home-grown
doctors and limits the time that overseas recruits can train and
work in the country. In 2003, 5,880 UK work permits were approved
for health and medical personnel from South Africa, 2,825 from
Zimbabwe, 1,510 from Nigeria and 850 from Ghana. Action Aid
says that failure to target aid at the poorest countries, runaway
spending on overpriced technical assistance from international
consultants, tying aid to purchases from donor countries' own
firms and huge administration costs all deflate the value of the
assistance. The report further indicates that compared with the
UN target to spend 0.7 per cent of rich countries' GDP on aid,
the West, including Britain, were spending far less. But the
British Department for International Development (DfID) has
rejected the findings saying Action Aid's figures do not stack
up. The UN has set millennium goals to eradicate global
poverty by 2015. But critics say that with capitalism, Africa's
match towards that goal will remain a pipe dream. Take Kenya,
for example. A recent survey published by The Sunday Standard
showed that the bulk of the country's wealth is in foreign hands,
and that if Kenya were a cake to be shared out, its citizens
would only lay claim to 31 per cent of the total piece. The rest
would go to foreigners.
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1
giugno 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Why Growth Doesn't Always Reduce
Poverty June 1, 2005 OPINION Janvier D. Nkurunziza
* Nairobi
Africa has the highest level of poverty in
the world and is one of the two regions where poverty has not
declined in the past 20 years. As the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa's forthcoming "Economic Report on
Africa 2005" shows, the proportion of the poor - those
living on less that a dollar a day - halved between 1980 and 2003
at the global level, from 40 per cent to 20 per cent. But in
Africa, the share of the poor increased slightly, from 45 per
cent to 46 per cent. Africa's poverty rate in 2003 exceeds that
of the next poorest region, South Asia, by 17 percentage
points. Recognising the link between economic growth and
poverty reduction, those who crafted the UN's Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) estimated that halving poverty by 2015
in Africa requires countries to achieve an average minimum growth
rate of 7 per cent annually. Whether or not African countries
will reach this goal is an open question. Since the mid-1990s,
African economies have been recording growth rates that are
higher than world averages. According to the World Bank, the
average growth rate for the period 1996-2002 in Africa was about
3.6 per cent, compared to the world average of 2.7 per cent.
Growth in Africa in 2004 averaged 5.1 per cent, the fastest in
eight years. Growth rates this year and in 2006 are projected at
4.7 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively. These average
rates mask stark differences between countries. In 2004, for
example, Chad's 39.4 per cent annual growth rate contrasted
sharply with Zimbabwe's -6.8 per cent economic
contraction. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that African
economies, taken together, have recovered from the dark years of
the 1980s. So the big question is why growth hasn't translated
into poverty reduction. One reason is that Africa's recent
growth rates, while high by international standards, remain too
low to have a substantial impact on poverty. Initial
conditions are so low that only high and sustained growth levels
may have a noticeable impact on poverty reduction. In no year has
Africa achieved the 7 per cent average growth rate required by
the MDGs. Consider Ethiopia. With its per capita GDP of about
$100, a growth rate of 7 per cent means that a typical Ethiopian
will increase his income by $7 a year. But if this rate of growth
were sustained over a period of just 10 years, per capita income
would double, which underscores the need for sustained high
growth rates. Very few countries in Africa have posted growth
rates consistent with the MDGs threshold. In 2004, only six
countries - Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Ethiopia, Angola
and Mozambique - had annual growth rates higher than 7 per cent.
And only four countries sustained a growth rate of 7 per cent or
more over the past five years. Moreover, most of the observed
growth was generated by capital rather than labour-intensive
sectors. If the fruit of economic growth reaches the poor through
employment creation, growth in capital-intensive sectors has a
limited effect on poverty reduction. Indeed, recent growth in
Africa appears to have been fuelled by increases in oil exports
and high oil prices. Eight of the top 10 performers in 2004 are
either oil-exporting countries or post-conflict economies, with
the latter's high annual growth rates explained mostly by the
proverbial "dead cat bounce" - the low base period over
which growth is measured. Economic growth reduces poverty only
if it benefits the poor, and the effect of growth on poverty
reduction is a function of the pattern of income
distribution. Africa as a continent has the world's second
highest measure of income concentration. This suggests that the
new wealth created over the last 10 years has mostly benefited
the rich. To help reduce poverty, Africa must strive to
increase its growth rates and sustain them over a long period.
Moreover, there must be greater balance between capital-intensive
and labour-intensive activities. But encouraging labour-intensive
industries, which create jobs for the poor, must not be at the
expense of capital-intensive industries. Finally, Africa's
income distribution must become more equitable. This is
difficult, given that a skewed income distribution is usually a
legacy of a country's history. But it is not impossible,
particularly for those African countries that succeed in
modernising their political institutions.
*Mr Nkurunziza
works for the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
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1
giugno 2005
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THE
STANDARD Widening Poverty Gap Worries Government June
1, 2005 Benson Kathuri
The Government has expressed
concern over the widening gap between the poor and the rich
despite the modest economic growth recorded in the past two
years. Planning and National Development Minister Anyang'
Nyong'o said less than three million people control half the
country's national wealth. He said the poorest three million
control less than two per cent of the wealth, making them "the
poorest of the poor who cannot afford the basics of life." "At
the national level, 56 per cent of Kenyans live below the poverty
line, 10 per cent of the top rich take home 48 per cent of all
incomes," Nyong'o said in a speech read by Permanent
Secretary David Nalo. "The 10 per cent of the bottom poor
take home only 1.8 per cent of the national income and clearly
such disparities in access to national wealth cannot be
sustained," he said. Nyong'o said the growing inequality
was a major source of insecurity as thousands of youth remain
unemployed to engage in crime. The state of affairs has
defeated the basic principles of social justice and would remain
a threat to the stability required for sustained national wealth
creation. "We are witnessing the consequences of this
inequality in form of increased crime, the high human toll taken
by preventable diseases, particularly malaria, TB and HIV/Aids,"
Nyong'o told participants during the launch of the Kenya
Community Development Foundation (KCDF) strategic plan
2005-2007. When he launched this year's Economic Survey,
Nyong'o decried the rising poverty level and asked leaders to
stop glorifying the vice. The grim picture casts doubt over
whether Kenya would achieve any of the Millennium Development
Goals agreed upon by Heads of State in New York, in 2000. The
KCDF chairman, Dr Mohammed Abdallah, said the goals are
achievable if communities are empowered to mobilise resources and
transform their lives. KCDF has in the past five years given
Sh120 million for community projects. He said the communities
must be trained to shun dependence. "We know the
communities have their own resources that can be harnessed for
sustained development," he said. "The leaders should
not take the excuse of reduced donor support to escape from
realities that the communities had enough resources that only
needed to be mobilized," he said.
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24
maggio 2005
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AFRICAN
WOMAN AND CHILD FEATURE SERVICE (Nairobi) –
[http://www.awcfs.org] Are Millennium Development Goals
Feasible for Kenyans? May 24, 2005 Betty Oyugi
"There
are no causes of poverty, but only causes of wealth," Peter
Bauer.
The late English development economist Peter Bauer
was a proponent of letting the market rather than government lead
development. For forty years in the post world war II period his
was a lone voice against foreign aid to the least developed
countries, preferring instead to advocate the path of inflows of
private capital. With only a few months left for the review of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) plus five scheduled to
take place in September this year in New York where the world
leaders will show their commitments in achieving the MDG gaols,
Kenya is still far from the target. Already 56 percent of
Kenya's population live below the poverty line and the figure is
projected to increase to 65.9 percent by 2015. In the rural
areas, poor people live on US$ 17 per month whereas the figure is
US$ 36 per month in urban areas. This translates to Ksh. 1296 and
Ksh. 2808 a month respectively. The Kenyan Government has been
working towards the attainment of MDGs by reviewing the whole
budgetary process to ensure the allocation of funds strictly to
priority areas. It is also strengthening and entrenching the
public expenditure review to help the government cut down on
wasteful expenditure and ensure proper monitoring and
accountability of public funds. The Kenyan Government has made
efforts to enhance the welfare of the poor, through policies such
as Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) for Wealth and Employment
Creation 2003-2007, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP),
the National Development Plan 2001-2007 and the Medium Term
Expenditure Framework (MTEF). A process which also included key
Kenyan stakeholders. Finance Minister David Mwiraria says that
at least Ksh. 120 billion is needed to implement the ERS and that
the government is sourcing for funders to help them raise this
money. Kenya's immediate post independence economic
development blueprint was the Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965,
which outlined the government's commitment to eradicate three
vices of hunger, illiteracy and disease. More recently, the
Government launched the ERS Strategy for Wealth and Employment
Creation for 2003-2007. With an economic growth record, that
is far much below seven percent, that is required to achieve
MDGs, Kenya may be far from achieving her targets by 2015. Poor
countries like Kenya need to improve on, accountability and
transparency to achieve the goals they committed to
themselves. The stumbling block for Kenya currently is
corruption; a major blow that the government is now experiencing
is the resignation of Ethics and Governance Permanent Secretary
(PS) John Githongo who was an engine towards zero tolerance on
corruption. Factors that sustain poverty are thought to be,
inefficient use and allocation of resources, corruption, bad
governance, poor health and malnutrition. In a country where
half of the population are women with most of them illiterate,
the achievement of these goals by 2015 is bleak. Dr. Richard
Muga, Director National Council for Population and Development
(NCPD) says that the entry point to the attainment of MDGs is the
improvement of illiteracy to Kenyans. Another priority that he
says needs to be considered is the National Social Health
Insurance Fund (NSHIF) the government needs to increase
expenditure per capita on health. On the road to getting into
governing Kenya, the NARC's manifesto had it spelt out that there
will be affordable and preventive healthcare. If this is not
put into consideration, the attainment of MDG 4, which is on
Child Mortality, shall be one of the dreams that is not
realised. If Gender equity and Equality is not put into
consideration the achievement of MDGs will be another mountain
that needs to be climbed. Nyaradzai Gumbomzvanda, Regional
Director UNIFEM says that gender mainstreaming should be at the
center stage towards the attainment of MDGs as issues of Gender
equality are equal to economics. "This shall be a direct
linkage towards achieving MDGs and adds that the new Kenyan
Constitution would be a handy tool, if implemented," she
points out. Minister of Gender, Sports and Social Services
Ochillo Ayacko agrees with her, but is quick to add that
internatonal conventions do not target Gender equity well. The
Kenyan poor should be involved in the MDG's process so that they
views can be included to see if the MDG's target can be
achieved. Interestingly, most of them, do not know what MDGs
are, they cannot read or write which makes it hard for them to
read newspapers. Most of them are women who don't own radios,
which cover vast areas as a mode of communication. The problem
however is not resources, but there are artificial reasons as to
why these goals may not be easy to achieve. These are insecurity,
property rights, licensing of businesses and culture. James
Shikwati, Director Inter Region Network (IREN) says that; Africa
has a lot of resources and wealth but poses a question if
people's minds are at work to realise what they have. According
to him, the country has got potential to make these goals
attainable even without relying on foreign donors. "The
Kenyan transport infrastructure needs to be improved to cover
what we are loosing with poor road networks," says
Shikwati. But poor infrastructure is also another problem
Kenya is facing. For example in Nairobi, where because of poor
transportation, the country looses Ksh. 18 billion per annum,
according to reports from the Kenya Ministry of Roads and Works.
And this does not take into account extra time people spend on
travelling. Therefore for Kenya to make the life of many
people who live in poverty, apart from attempting to achieve the
MDG's goals, there are still some national problems which are
linked to good governance which it has to achieve first. If
Kenya can achieve the MDG's goals as expected, they join the
world as in improving the livelihoods of many and ast Jeffrey
Sachs, the Director of the MDGs Advisory team estimates that if
the goals are to be met globally; 500 million people will escape
poverty by 2015, 250 million are to be spared from hunger and 30
million children will live past their fifth birthday.
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19
maggio 2005
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CISANEWS
[www.cisanews.org] KENYA: Catholic Church Calls for
Cancellation of Foreign Debt Publication Date: May 17,
2005
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 17, 2005 (CISA) -The Catholic
Church has added its voice to a growing call to international
creditors to write off Kenyas -and Africas- crippling debt. We
expect the governments of creditor countries to implement the
total cancellation of the debt owed by Kenya, to relax
restrictive monetary policies and encourage imports from the
developing world, Kenyas 28 bishops said in a Pastoral Letter
read in Nairobi on Tuesday, May 17, 2005. The launch of the
Pastoral Letter, On the Burden of International Debt,. fell
within a new weeklong campaign (May 15-22, 2005) spearheaded by
the Kenyan Debt Relief Network (KENDREN) and the Catholic
Economic Justice Africa. Despite receiving US$ 17 billion in
loans and aid, Kenyas economy continued to decline, the bishops
said. In as far as debt servicing reduces people to poverty
while its creditors determine Kenyas political, economic and
social destiny, debt is essentially a human rights issue,they
said and blasted corruption on the part of our government
officials. . . We cannot denounce the evil of foreign debt
without accepting our responsibility for the growth of poverty
among us.
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10
maggio 2005
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IRIN
[www.irinnews.org] Getting on board ActionAid's
anti-poverty campaign 5 May 2005
NAIROBI, 5 May
2005 (IRIN) - Weakened by age, 90-year-old Mary Wanjiku Munene
sat in her one-room house in the sprawling Kibera slum in Kenya’s
capital, Nairobi - a room she shares with her seven grandchildren
who were orphaned by AIDS. "Our home is falling apart,"
she said. "This child [pointing to her great grand daughter]
is handicapped. At the special school they say we have to pay for
her to be admitted. Sometimes we have no food and we just drink
water and go to bed. Please help a poor woman like me," she
added. Munene was speaking to a group of reporters and
representatives of the UK charity, ActionAid, on Wednesday. The
charity has launched a campaign to gather the voices and views of
Africa's poor. The views are expected to be presented to the
leaders of the group of seven western industrialised countries
and Russia during the 6-7 July Group of Eight (G8) summit in
Gleneagles, Scotland. ActionAid's social campaigners hope to
lobby the leaders to support fairer terms of trade for developing
nations, debt cancellation, increased aid, support for better
health care projects, including providing treatment for those in
poor societies infected with HIV/AIDS, better education
opportunities for the poor and the improvement of
agriculture. "We have enough problems," Munene said.
"Let those who have the ability help us."
HELP
US - SLUM DWELLERS The chairman of a community-based
organisation in Kibera, Onesmus Nyamai, emphasised that the slum
dwellers were not irredeemable, and were able to initiate
projects to improve their lives, but had limited capacity due to
their extreme poverty. "We have initiated water projects,
built pit latrines and started a nursery school that is
benefiting 400 children, mainly orphans," Nyamai said. "Why
can't those [countries] owed money by our governments reduce or
cancel the debts so that our governments can have more money to
support us," he added. "These issues should be
discussed at the international level. This is not politics, we
are only asking for some help." Josephine Kamene, a
single mother of six who uses clay and plastic beads to make
jewellery, said she dreamed of being able to access micro-credit
services to expand her business and hoped that one day, she might
be able to export her wares. "My message to the G8
leaders is that I just want a little help," Kamene said. "I
have a trade and I am ready to train others, but the cost of
capital is high. Right now all I can afford is food and even that
is a problem sometimes." Kamene’s small hut also
accommodates her sister, Priscilla Kathina, who travelled from
her rural home in the southern District of Kitui to seek
treatment in Nairobi when she contracted tuberculosis. "I
hope one day I will be able to take my children out of the slums
where they are exposed to the danger of frequent fires, thuggery
and prostitution. I would really like to improve my life,"
Kamene said.
GET ON BOARD – ACTIONAID ActionAid
is using a bus as the symbol of its campaign, and intends to use
this roving representative to mobilise developing countries to
challenge the G8 leaders to support, rather than undermine, the
efforts by Africa's poor to overcome poverty, injustice and
social exclusion. The crusade has been dubbed the "Get On
Board” campaign. "The bus is a symbol of the most
excluded people in Africa and it is carrying what the poor are
saying to the G8 countries," Asenath Omwega, ActionAid's
regional director for Africa, told reporters in Kiberia. The
bus left South Africa on 1 April on an epic voyage to Scotland,
traversing Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. The bus will travel
to Uganda after touring western Kenya. On 15 May, it will be
driven to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, from where it will be
shipped to Marseille, France, for the onward journey to Britain
via Italy, and finally to Gleneagles on 6 July, the G8 summit’s
opening day. "During its journey in parts of Africa the
[bus] team has met with unbelievable stories - of tragedy, as
well as passion and real hope," ActionAid said. "The
bus carries some of their powerful messages to the world's as
well as their own political leaders."
© IRIN
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2
maggio 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Rich urged to cancel Africa's Sh300bn
debt Story by LUCAS BARASA 05/02/2005
ActionAid
official Lise Melvin who is among the people on the "Get on
Board" bus collecting debt and poverty views from the public
in Africa (centre), share a joke with Kenya's Ms Rose Mandeya as
the latter tries her hand at steering the vehicle when it entered
Kenya at Namanga from southern Africa yesterday. The rich
nations were yesterday asked to cancel Africa's Sh300 billion
debt and help to reduce poverty on the continent. A team on a
bus ride around Africa to collect views to be forwarded to a
meeting of the world's most powerful leaders in Scotland on June
6 also called for more aid for the continent. The group also
called for a reduction of the trade imbalance between the poor
South and the rich North and the lowering of the cost of Aids
treatment. They called for good governance in Africa for
better use of resources. The bus dubbed "Get on Board"
started its journey in South Africa and entered Kenya through
Namanga yesterday. It was received by Kenya Poverty Eradication
Commission chairman Gilbert Oluoch, ActionAid country director
Joyce Umbima and Tanzania's East Africa Legislative Assembly
members Adan Abdullahi and George Nangale. The poor are to
give views on trade, aid, debt and Aids, which will be presented
at the meeting of G8 (group of eight most industrialised nations)
leaders. "It is the first time to collect views from the
poor and the down-trodden for such a meeting," Mr Abdullahi
said. "It is important to publicise the problems people
in Africa are facing," he added. "It is a noble idea
and I appeal to the G8 to look at the views raised
collectively."Mr Nangale said it was Africa's "moral
obligation and right" to get aid from the developed
countries. ActionAid official Njeri Mwangi, who is coordinating
the bus trip, said it was part of the Global Action Against
Poverty's policy to involve communities at the
grassroots. Africa's debt stands at Sh300 billion and should
be cancelled and resources channelled to education, health and
other infrastructure, she added. Mr Oluoch said 56 per cent of
Kenyans live the below the poverty line of about Sh76 a day. The
figure increased from 3.7 million people in 1972 to 11 million in
2001. It is now 18 million. Maasai elder Mengati ole Kisarmoi
said Africa's future would be bleak if Aids was not
contained. Another ActionAid official, Ms Rebecca Wabwoba,
announced that President Kibaki was expected to launch a global
campaign against Aids at Kenyatta International Conference
Centre, Nairobi, tomorrow. Before the launch set for 10.30 am,
the bus's team will be in Parliament to petition it on access to
Hiv/Aids treatment. The bus is expected at Kibera slums on
Wednesday before proceeding to Nakuru, Eldoret, Budalangi and
Busia.
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18
aprile 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION IMF's poverty plans 'making it
unpopular' Publication Date: 4/18/2005 Story by KEVIN J
KELLEY in New York
Africans hold an increasingly negative
view of the International Monetary Fund, its ministers have
declared. The ministers, among them Finance minister David
Mwiraria, charged at the fund’s spring meeting in
Washington at the weekend, that this was due to IMF's failure to
reduce poverty. The ineffectiveness of the IMF’s
poverty-reduction and debt-relief programmes made it difficult to
implement economic reforms because "they are perceived as
policies imposed by the IMF", the African governors
declared. The IMF also continued to impose "politically
sensitive" conditions on its loans to Africa, "which
makes it difficult to keep the programmes on track", the
governors added. They urged the fund to "promote outreach
and dialogue with the broader African population", and
called for increased African representation at the upper levels
of the IMF staff and in its decision-making organs. Africa
currently accounts for 43 of the IMF’s 184 governors –
one for each of the fund’s member countries. But Africa
holds only 4.4 per cent of the voting rights within the IMF,
which are allotted in accordance with the amount of money
countries contribute to the fund. The US has the greatest single
say, with 17 per cent of voting rights, followed by Japan with
6.1 per cent and Germany with 6 per cent. Efforts to meet the
2015 deadline for achieving the UN’s Millennium Development
Goals have been "unsatisfactory", the African governors
said. They further criticised rich countries for refusing to
reform their "trade-distorting policies" and for giving
insufficient attention to Africa’s needs concerning
agriculture, energy and infrastructure. The governors’
critique coincided with the rich countries’ failure, once
again, to devise a debt-cancellation initiative for
Africa. Finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) rich
countries attending the IMF meetings were unable to agree on how
to pay for such a move. But Britain’s Gordon Brown, who
has been campaigning for major increases in aid to Africa,
predicted on Saturday that a debt-lifting deal would be reached
by the time of the G-7 July summit in Scotland. A more
positive picture of Africa’s prospects is presented in an
IMF report released in the run-up to the meetings. It notes that
20 sub-Saharan nations have achieved annual economic growth rates
of more than five per cent. Kenya’s growth this year is
projected at 3.5 per cent. But African clothing exporters
could soon lose thousands of jobs due to the lifting of trade
quotas that had restricted sales by China, the report warns,
adding that "the pressure on employment could be severe".
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13
aprile 2005
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THE
STANDARD What Kenya must do to receive aid Wednesday
April 13, 2005 By Tom Mogusu
The Government yesterday
agreed to a long list of conditions it must meet in the next one
year before it can get more money from donors. Most of the
funds for development projects will remain intact, though no
significant new pledges were made. "We discussed
important policy reforms and agenda for Kenya and which should be
implemented as a way of enabling Kenya access the funds that had
been pledged," said Mr Makhtar Diop, the World Bank’s
Country Director for Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia, at the end of
the two-day consultative meeting. Diop described the meeting
as a success. "This was a truly consultative meeting. It
is not one which people came from abroad to tell this government
what to do," he said. After two days of consultations in
a high-powered meeting between Kenya its donors, the government
acceded to demands first broached by the private sector and civil
society that it first demonstrates serious commitment to fight
corruption. Though discussions during the second day were
generally described as positive, allegations of increased
corruption and what the donors termed as the Government’s
slow pace in fighting the vice overshadowed a bigger economic and
development debate. The meeting was closed to the media, but
there was a press briefing after 7pm. Sources say that the
Government agreed to fast track the implementation of a
five-point strategy that should pave the way for the promised
budgetary support. This includes: Enactment of legislation to
establish a legislative platform on which to anchor the war on
corruption. Vigorous enforcement of anti-corruption laws
through investigation of corruption offences and economic crimes,
as well as recovery of corruptly acquired
property. Identification and sealing of loopholes through
institution of effective public sector management
controls. National public education aimed at stigmatising
corruption and inducing behavioral change. Implementing
macroeconomic and structural reforms to reduce the incidence and
demand for corruption by scaling down the role of the public
sector and bureaucracy. The strategy was not part of the
original agenda of the meeting. Finance minister David
Mwiraria confirmed that the action plan had been agreed upon and
said the Government would also review existing provisions
governing the conduct of public servants to ensure that they
support the effective implementation of the action plan. Such
a review, said Mwiraria, would address issues such as conflict of
interest, adherence to relevant Code of Ethics and efficiency,
accountability and transparency in the conduct of public
affairs. The donors are also asking the Government "to
engage in regular dialogue with Parliament, civil society, the
private sector and the international community." "While
the Executive arm is fully committed to fighting corruption,
support of the other two branches together with the general
public is crucial," said Mwiraria. One of the major
undertakings by the Government is that it will expand the
jurisdiction of Special Magistrates’ Courts to enable them
to deal with corruption and economic crimes cases. It will
also empower the High Court to appoint receivers for property
suspected to have been obtained through corruption. The Kenya
anti-corruption commission will also be empowered to take over
corruption-related cases that have already been commenced by the
police. Mwiraria also called on donor governments to prosecute
foreign companies colluding with Kenyans in corrupt deals. "If
perpetrators of corruption know that they cannot run and hide
abroad, they will think twice about engaging in acts of
corruption," he said. Diop said that other than the
strategy on anti-corruption, the discussions dealt on efforts to
improve accountability, ownership of development and economic
growth and democracy. "We discussed governance because
there is an increasing concern by Kenyans themselves on how the
government was addressing these issues. We spent three hours
discussing governance and agreed to set-up an action plan that
will be monitored and evaluated from time to time," he
said. Even though the consultative meeting did not dwell on
releasing additional funds to Kenya, Diop said the Government’s
ability and speed in implementing the growth agenda was also on
the discussion table.
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13
aprile 2005
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THE
STANDARD UN: Kenya falling behind in Millennium
Goals Wednesday April 13, 2005 By Benson Kathuri
About
15 million Kenyans live in abject poverty, United Nations
agencies in Nairobi said yesterday. They said Kenya was likely
to miss seven out of the eight desired Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). In a joint statement read by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Mr Paul De
la Porte, the agencies said poverty levels were worsening. Porte
said leading indicators showed the country had also lost track of
other goals. "The 2003 MDG progress report and the
recently concluded needs assessment for Kenya show that with the
exception of primary education and HIV/Aids, the country is not
likely to meet all the other MDG targets," he said. The
agencies expressed concern over the widening gap between the rich
and the poor. The inequality, they said, was a big blow to
poverty alleviation. They say absolute poverty remains high as
the number of the poor had increased from 12.5 million in 1997 to
15 million. "There are only very limited prospects of
achieving the MDGs at the current pace of economic growth, and
important investments in key sectors of the economy such as
agriculture and health," they said. Porte said the gross
inequality had worsened poverty, insecurity, crime, social unrest
and undermined the overall economic growth and development of the
country. The crime rate in Kenya rose by 51 per cent between 1994
and 2000. He urged the Government to develop resources at the
community level. "This, however, calls for the promotion
of good governance, the rule of law, and the protection and
promotion of human rights. It is discouraging that hunger
continues to rise and the country is unlikely to achieve MDGs if
this trend continues," he said. The donors were also
concerned that the delayed constitutional review was hindering
economic development. The UN agencies said a new constitution
would address the fundamental development question of service
delivery comprehensively and with finality. Health Minister
Charity Ngilu, who presented the health report, said almost all
leading health indicators were on the decline. Life expectancy;
infant and child mortality had worsened, with life expectancy at
birth for women going down to 48 years compared to 47 for men.
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11
aprile 2005
|
THE
DAILY NATION Cancel Africa's Huge Debts, Social Workers
Tell Donors April 12, 2005 Richard Chesos
Donors
have been told to cancel African countries' debts. Hundreds of
social workers from all over the world, who are gathered in
Nairobi for a five-day conference, yesterday said the fight
against poverty in the continent could only be won if debts were
waived. The theme of the sixth Pan African meeting at Kenyatta
International Conference Centre is Professional Social Work and
its Contribution to Africa's Development. Delegates from 28
countries are attending the meeting. The more than 300
participants were drawn from NGOs, government departments, church
organisations, local authorities, health and social work training
institutions, among others. The president of the International
Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), Ms Imelda Dodds, said Africa
was becoming poorer while paying huge debts. She urged the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) to extend its planned debt
relief to Zambia to other countries. Ms Dodds said her
organisation would continue campaigning for debt relief to Third
World countries, particularly this week to mark the Global Week
of Action on Debt Relief. The social workers' campaign
coincided with a crucial meeting between the Government and
donors at the School of Monetary Studies at Ruaraka, Nairobi. The
KICC meeting was opened by Gender, Sports, Culture and Social
Services deputy permanent secretary Moses Gitari on behalf of
minister Ochilo Ayacko. IFSW Africa region's vice-president
Charles Mbugua said social workers had a critical role to preach
peace in the continent's volatile countries. Mr Ayacko said
Africa was facing many social problems and such conferences could
provide a forum for sharing experiences with a view to solving
them. "The role of social workers is not only significant
but also challenging and complex due to the fluid socio-economic
environment and increasing poverty levels, which have been
worsened by the devastating impact of HIV/Aids pandemic,
especially here in the African region," he said. The
minister asked the participants to use the forum to draw out
ethical parameters of social work practice.
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11
aprile 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Forgive our debts or we shall remain
poor Publication Date: 4/6/2005 Mr Sisule *
The
man slated to become World Bank President, Dr Paul Wolfowitz, has
started on a politically correct note. It is fashionable for
anybody looking to sound good on the international stage to
invoke a dedication to ending poverty, especially in Africa. But
one would be forgiven for wondering why the Bank, and its twin,
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have failed to achieve
this feat in the 60 years of their existence. The Bank and
the IMF boast vast financial and human resources, yet they have
presided over growing poverty in Africa and widening inequality
in South America and Asia. Where progress has been made in
poor countries, it has been because of ignoring or moderating the
prescriptions imposed by these two institutions. For instance
the credit for the resurgent growth in Asia, South America, Egypt
and South Africa is largely credited to prudent actions on the
part of governments, contrary, in fact, to what the Bank and the
Fund may have wished. It would seem any country that strictly
follows the advice of the two multilateral organisations blindly,
is doomed to heavier debts and poverty as many African countries
have belatedly learnt. The fact remain that the institutions
pursue structural changes to economies without giving due regard
to the effects of such changes on social progress and political
stability. Their prescriptions are sworn on the bible of
macro-economic fundamentals with little attention being to the
micro-economic realities. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only
region in the world to have grown poorer in the last decade. The
area has the lowest life expectancy, the highest child mortality
and the worst adult literacy. Healthcare and infrastructural
facilities are either non-existent or decrepit. Whereas poor
governance could be a contributory factor to the morass, it is
not the main reason for Africa's poverty. Clearly, a majority of
African countries have improved their governance over the last
two decades. Between 1990 and 2005, at least 35 of the 55 African
nations have become functional democracies with free and fair
elections. Only 11 are under dictatorship or are engaged in war.
Yet poverty has been rising as Africa democratises. It is
obvious that the cause of poverty in Africa is poor access to
international markets and the heavy debt burden. Good governance
will only work if it is matched by a fair deal in international
trade and the cancellation of debts. Net official aid had
declined from $16,552 million in 1996 to $13,933 in 2001. As a
result, debt service as a percentage of export of goods and
services had declined from 20.4 per cent in 1996 to 10.6 per cent
in 2002. Since most of the rich countries are stingy with aid
anyway, it is a good thing that Africa is learning to live
without it. The wealthy nations are flagrantly hypocritical
in handling the debt problem. The Bush administration took just a
few days to help cancel the $120 billion owed by Iraq because the
country is an important source of oil for America. Yet successive
US administrations have opposed total debt forgiveness for other
poor countries deemed to be of less strategic importance. The
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative run by the IMF
had only cancelled $31 billion by the end of 2004 out of the $110
billion agreed in 1996. This is a misguided policy since debt is
a threat to world peace as it creates fertile ground for conflict
and terrorism. A strategy is needed to end the African debt
problem. The most substantial part of debt is the "political"
bit owed to foreign governments and multilateral organisations,
dealt with under the Paris Club, IMF and World Bank negotiations.
The other proportion of the debt stock is the "commercial
debt" owed to banks and bondholders dealt with under the
London Club. The first part of the strategy should be a
publicity campaign within industrialised countries and in
multilateral organisations to sensitise people on the damage the
debt burden has done on poor economies. They should be told
that poor countries cannot afford to pay back these debts, now or
in the future. Not when children are dying from hunger,
sicknesses are ravaging the masses, and poverty is getting
worse.
* Mr Sisule is a consultant with AfricaIntel.com
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11
aprile 2005
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THE
STANDARD Extend debt relief, urges President Tuesday
April 5, 2005 By Waweru Mugo
President Kibaki yesterday
urged developed countries to extend debt relief to accelerate
delivery of water, sanitation and housing to the rest of the
world. President Kibaki also urged the donor community as well
as countries with financial ability to contribute to a global
initiative that seeks upgrading of slums. Addressing a
UN-Habitat meeting in Nairobi yesterday, he said ongoing slum
upgrading would be humane with minimal displacement. "Upgrading
of slums has been given high priority and will be undertaken with
minimal displacement of slum dwellers to cater for proper
planning and provision of infrastructure," Kibaki told the
20th Session of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat at
Gigiri. Habitat Executive Director Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka
urged the world to act fast to check the rapid growth of slums
that she described as epitomes of "dehumanising
squalour". About 1,000 delegates, including ministers,
government representatives, mayors, local authority officials, UN
officials, NGO representatives and community groups are attending
the four-day meeting. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof Wangari
Maathai attributed increasing rural-to-urban migration to
environmental degradation. "Their land has become
degraded and too fragile to sustain livelihoods. They are
environmental refugees," said Prof Maathai. Told the
gathering that included Unep boss Klaus Toepfer and Kenyan
ministers Amos Kimunya (Lands and Housing), Chirau Ali Mwakwere
(Foreign Affairs) and Musikari Kombo (Local Government). "Slums
and squatters promote further degradation of the land through
removal of trees, vegetation, pollution and inadequate waste
management," said Maathai.
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10
aprile 2005
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THE
STANDARD Campaign for debt relief, Maathai tells
Africa Thursday March 31, 2005
African countries
should talk less and campaign more for debt relief to combat
poverty, Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai said
yesterday. She said poor countries should put more emphasis on
fair trade and avoid further destruction of the environment. "If
countries in Africa are forced to pay, we will have to cut the
trees, scrape the land, overgraze the pasture," Maathai
said. Prof Maathai was speaking in Japan at the opening of the
Forum of Expo 2005 Aichi, which was attended by Gro Harlem
Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister, and Kazumoto
Yamamoto of the Japan-based Asahi Kasei Corporation. The Expo,
whose theme is Nature’s Wisdom, will run through
September. Maathai said poor countries were not asking for
favours from the rich, but space. "I have found it very
difficult to see how people can be committed to ending poverty
but not to debt reduction. Sometimes we ask poor governments to
do the impossible," she said. Until policies on debt and
trade change, Maathai said, efforts to realise the United
Nations’ Millennium Development Goals will be in
vain. Maathai, who is also an Assistant Environment Minister,
urged the world to adopt "mottainai", a Japanese term
for reducing, reusing and recycling resources. She introduced
a fourth "R" for "restoration of the
environment". "Nature is very unforgiving and if we
destroy her, we will suffer. As an individual, you can practice
the spirit of ‘mottainai’," she said.
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30
marzo 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION US bows out of Blair aid plan for
Africa Publication Date: 3/25/2005 Story by WASHINGTON
AKUMU in Paris
The US will not adopt a British formula for
increasing aid to Africa. The strategy is part of Prime
minister Tony Blair's recently-launched economic blueprint for
the continent. The US Treasury Undersecretary for
International Affairs, John Taylor, said yesterday that while the
US supported in principle Britain's Economic Commission for
Africa (ECA) Report, it could not commit itself to long-term
financing it. He says: "The ECA Report has some good
material on ways to reduce poverty. We support its goals and
agree with its emphasis on measurability. "The proposed
International Finance Facility works for Britain and other
countries, and that is fine. But for us, and others like Canada
and Japan, our laws are such that the legislature cannot commit
the nation's funds many years into the future." Mr Taylor
was briefing the Press at the US Embassy here on Wednesday, on
the Financial Facility, a central cog in the British plan. He
spoke ahead of a two-day observation of meetings of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
states. Under its plan for Africa's economic resuscitation,
the British government has been lobbying rich countries to double
their aid flows to Africa from the current $55 billion to $100
billion through a programme that requires the donor states to
make long-term commitments. A country like Kenya could then
use the same amount as security to enable it to borrow from the
capital market. According to media reports, Italy, France and
Germany support the financing facility, which is being
aggressively marketed by British chancellor of the Exchequer
Gordon Brown. But Mr Taylor said that, while US citizens had
shown that they were "generous" in helping the world's
poor, they wanted first to be shown evidence that their money is
making a difference. He also dismissed a French plan to target
certain taxes for aid. In what would seem to be open season
for economic prescriptions for Africa, French President Jacques
Chirac proposes that new aid be paid for by levying taxes on arms
sales or transactions that abet pollution.
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21
marzo 2005
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CATHOLIC
INFORMATION SERVICE FOR AFRICA (CISA) KENYA: African
Union Should Push for Debt Cancellation Issue No. 409,
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
NAIROBI, Kenya, March 11, 2005
(CISA) -The African Union (AU), being the pan-African
intergovernmental body that can assess the laws governing debt
and the statutory and other obligations of lenders, should play a
crucial role in ensuring that debt is cancelled in the African
continent. This is one of the key points that came up at a
forum hosted by Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN) in Nairobi on
Thursday, March 10, 2005. Opa Kajimpanga, chairman African
Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), said that
failure of development in any country should be attributed to
those delegated in authority. AFRODAD is a research, lobby and
advocacy regional organisation seeking to secure positive policy
changes to redress Africa's debt and development crisis in order
to achieve equitable and sustainable development. "We as
people have the right to interrogate the state whenever our
rights are violated," Opa said. For debt cancellation,
Opa declared that different states should interact in an equal
status and help the weaker one among them. "The African
countries should only pay between 5 to 10 per cent of the debt
burden that has accrued over the years," Opa told CISA after
the function. A local co-ordinator for Millennium Development
Goals (MDG's), Wahu Kaara, urged participants to act on the
millennium goals instead of letting leaders fight poverty
alone. "Let's make poverty history because there are no
excuses any more," said she. While emphasising on the
goals that included a global partnership for development, Kaara
said that leaders only provide the blue print, while citizens are
charged with ensuring that the goals are not only articulated but
also become a reality.
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19
marzo 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Rights body to help Kenya's debt relief
bid Publication Date: 3/19/2005 Story by MUGO NJERU
A
campaign has been launched to help relieve Kenya of its foreign
debt burden of more than Sh700 billion. So grave is the
situation, says a Nairobi human rights organisation whose
initiative it is, that each child born today inherits a Sh44,269
debt. The Chambers of Justice wants Kenyans, in particular,
and Africans in general, to take their debt relief call to the
G8, the grouping of the world's industrialist nations, at its
annual meeting in the Scottish tourist engrave of Gleneagles in
July. It is at the summit that the African recovery plan
spearheaded by Britain – A G8 member – will be
adopted or rejected. Dubbed Africa's Marshall Plan, the
initiative proposes an injection of $25 billion (Sh2 trillion) a
year in aid to black Africa in the next three to five years and
$50 billion (Sh4 trillion) annually thereafter. It also
proposes a cancellation of 100 per cent of the debts owed by the
world's poorest countries and the lifting of trade barriers
constricting Africa's share of the international trade. The
plan calls for the removal of barriers to black Africa's exports
and demands an immediate end to the rich nations' subsidies on
cotton and sugar by 2010. It also wants improved performance
by African rulers and calls on the rich to rein in bribe givers
from their countries. Mr Ababu Namwamba, Chamber of Justice's
chief counsel, said during the launch yesterday that the campaign
aimed at collecting 1 million signatures from those who support
Kenya's call for debt relief. It also aimed at increased and
better targeted official development aid as well as fiscal
discipline in the government. Mr Namwamba said a memorandum
based on public hearings to be held in all the eight provinces
would be adopted by May for onwards presentation to the
summit. Members of Parliament, he said, would be sensitised to
push the government to make Kenya's presence felt at then summit.
Although he did not disclose the venue, Mr Namwamwa said a
retreat had already been scheduled for the MPs to specifically
lobby for this.
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14
marzo 2005
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THE
STANDARD Pessimism greets UK’s rescue plan for
Africa Friday March 114, 2005 By Matthew Green*
"We’ve
heard it all before" was the response from many Africans to
Britain’s new rescue plan for the continent, revealing
doubts over whether well-meaning words will translate into
action. Britain unveiled a dossier challenging the rich world
to end "appalling" market protectionism and give an
extra $25 billion a year, echoing calls for more trade and aid
that Africans have been writing up in action plans for
years. "This whole effort is a slap in the face of
Africa," said Pete Ondeng’, head of a private body
mobilising resources for a home-grown African economic plan, the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), launched
in 2001. "What is coming out of the report is not
surprising because there is nothing that you can tell me that
hasn’t been thought through before in terms of the
problems," he told Reuters in the Kenyan capital
Nairobi. While Africans generally support the calls by the
London-sponsored Africa Commission for the rich world to rewrite
global trade rules to help millions of impoverished farmers sell
their produce abroad, the real test will be whether the European
Union and G8 group of rich nations adopt the plan. "Its
implementation will depend more on how much they are willing to
fulfill their promises," said Manenga Ndulo, an economics
professor at the University of Zambia. "Previously we have
had so many plans which have not been fulfilled." Government
officials in Kenya, a long-standing ally of Britain, gave a
cautious welcome to the document although even they acknowledged
the level of scepticism. "Let us not be too pessimistic
about what the commission is likely to achieve," said
Planning minister Peter Anyang Nyongo. South African President
Thabo Mbeki said he had not had a chance to read the 464-page
report, which some Africans say British Prime Minister Tony Blair
backed mainly to boost his standing after Iraq tarnished his
image. "I do hope that it will indeed serve the purpose
for which it was intended," Mbeki told reporters, saying it
should lead to progress in Nepad and an existing G8 Africa Action
Plan. Calls for greater aid are common refrains among African
leaders, but some analysts said even more than the proposed $25
billion a year would be needed to make serious progress on basics
like health, water, education and roads. "This will
definitely augment our efforts but much more aid needs to flow to
Africa if we are to catch up with development," said Erastus
Mwencha, head of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (Comesa) trade bloc. He said $15 billion a year was needed
for infrastructure alone. The commission also called for 100
percent debt write-offs for the poorest nations, an arms treaty
to regulate weapons flows into Africa, punishment for Western
businesses that pay bribes, and repatriation of stolen
funds. "That the commissioners are well-intentioned men
and women is beyond doubt," wrote Ugandan commentator Andrew
Mwenda, one of 16 African journalists invited to London for
briefings on the Africa Commission. "But it is an effort
most likely to produce very little." In Madagascar, a
giant Indian Ocean island off the southeastern coast of Africa,
reaction was similarly tepid. "This is nothing new,"
said Airy Ramiarison, senior economics lecturer at the University
of Antananarivo in Madagascar’s capital, referring to debt
relief plans. "Maybe instead of suggesting a new
initiative, the rich countries could just stick to the promises
they have already made," he said. *(With Shapi Shacinda
in Lusaka, Gershwin Wanneburg in Pretoria, Gordon Bell in Cape
Town, David Mageria in Nairobi and Tim Cocks in Antananarivo).
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14
marzo 2005
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THE
STANDARD World Bank to support Blair’s Africa
plan with cash Monday March 14, 2005 By Tom Mogusu
The
World Bank will increase its budget for Africa over the next one
decade in order to boost the British government’s efforts
to address poverty on the continent, it has been announced. Mr
James Wolfensohn, the bank’s President, said the bank would
increase its allocations for African projects as proposed by the
Africa Commission report that was launched last Friday. "The
World Bank Group strongly endorses the Commission for Africa
Report and we hope that the global community will work to advance
its principal recommendations," he said in a statement
posted on the bank’s website. "The Bank group
stands ready to scale up its assistance to Africa and to work
with countries to help themselves in attacking obstacles to
greater growth and poverty reduction," Wolfensohn said. His
pledge is based on the Commission for Africa report, which calls
for the doubling of aid to sub-Saharan Africa, including
investment of $150 billion in infrastructure over the next one
decade. It also calls for investment in assets such as rural
roads, safe water, ports, transport networks and power
generation. The report says investments by donors in these
sectors would trigger growth and job creation- a fact that would
help Africa make progress towards the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). The Commission for Africa is an initiative if
the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose aim is to rescue
African from acute poverty and economic decline. The commission
was set-up last year by to take a fresh look at how the
international community can support Africa’s development.
It will also try to galvanise Europe to focus more on Africa,
which is ranked as least developed thanks to rampant poverty,
economic stagnation and huge debts that stand at $350 billion
(Sh28 trillion). By the end of 1998, debt repayments amounted
to $30 billion (Sh2.4 trillion) or 25 per cent of the continent’s
exports. Kenya’s accumulated debt is $45 billion (Sh3.6
trillion). The Africa commission report also comes at a time when
Africa’s debt burden has risen 24-fold over the last 34
years. The proportion of those living in abject poverty in the
continent has also shot-up from 100 million to 304 million over
the same period. Such statistics were included in the
Commission’s report, triggering the World Bank to suggest
that it was willing to lend a hand in addressing issues
surrounding poverty and the need to meet the MDGs goals. "We
share the hope expressed in the report that the unacceptable
trends of impoverishment and marginalisation in the world’s
poorest region can be reversed," Wolfensohn said. He,
however, urged African countries to play their role in the fight
against poverty by rolling out domesticated reforms and
initiatives that tackle poverty. Said Wolfensohn; "African
governments can build on progress already evident in a number of
countries that have reduced conflict, and are addressing
corruption to cut poverty levels."
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14
marzo 2005
|
THE
DAILY NATION Blair report calls for massive aid to
Africa Publication Date: 3/12/2005 Story by PAUL
REDFERN in London
An ambitious Africa recovery plan
sponsored by British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday
challenged the rich world to end "appalling" trade
protectionism and inject an extra $25 billion (Sh2 trillion) a
year in aid. But the report faced a daunting task to gain
acceptance from the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations and win over
sceptics who saw it as nothing new. British High Commissioner
Sir Edward Clay and Planning minister Anyang' Nyong'o with a copy
of the Blair commission report during a news conference at the
minister's Treasury Building office in Nairobi yesterday "African
poverty and stagnation is the greatest tragedy of our time,"
said the 464-page report by the commission, which includes Mr
Blair, his finance minister, several African leaders and Irish
rock star turned campaigner Bob Geldof. Its promoters liken it
to the post-Second World War "Marshall Plan" for
recovery in Europe. "Let us today pledge to make 2005 the
year our eyes opened to the full reality of Africa," Mr
Blair said at a London launch for the plan. "To the
horror of its daily and preventable death toll, to the grinding
misery of so many millions of its people, yet also to the hope
that together we can change that reality for the
better." Critics, however, said the report’s lofty
words would go the same way as previous Africa plans unless rich
nation groups like the G8 and the European Union, both of which
Britain chairs this year, put their money where their mouths
are. Immediate reaction from Africa, where some view the plan
as a way for Mr Blair to recoup public relations damage caused by
his Iraq policy, was sceptical. While South African president
Thabo Mbeki said he hoped the report "will indeed serve the
purpose for which it was intended", Madagascar economics
lecturer Airy Ramiarison told rich countries to "just stick
to the promises they have already made". Mr Pete Ondeng’,
head of a lobby for a home-grown African economic plan, called it
"a slap in the face of Africa." Western charities were
cautious too. Britain’s ActionAid called the
recommendations "an ambitious but realistic agenda" and
said: "The first real test will be whether it is acted upon
at the G8 leaders’ Gleneagles summit (in Scotland) in
July." A central plank for funding the plan - the
British-proposed International Finance Facility to borrow against
future aid pledges - has already drawn US opposition. The
report called for a vast increase in aid to Africa - an extra $25
billion a year until 2010, and $50 billion annually
thereafter. The report says Western companies are often as
guilty as African governments since they sell lucrative deals to
corrupt regimes through bribes, making the West play a major part
in perpetuating corruption. It adds: "If it does so in
its own activities - and demands it in the activities of private
sector agents, like the multinational companies active in
developing countries - then it will encourage similar standards
in the way African countries manage cash." "It is
pointless to bemoan African corruption when (the West) does not
take the measures to counter it."
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11
marzo 2005
|
La
Repubblica on-line [www.repubblica.it] Un New Deal per
l'Africa la povertà e la stagnazione sono la più
grande tragedia del nostro tempo di TONY BLAIR 11 marzo
2005
UN ANNO fa ho istituito la Commissione per l'Africa
affidandole il compito di elaborare un piano coerente e globale
di reali cambiamenti che avrebbero contribuito a realizzare
un'azione energica e proficua. Nel corso degli ultimi dieci mesi,
17 commissari indipendenti (in maggioranza africani) hanno tenuto
ampie consultazioni con l'Unione africana, i governi, gli
specialisti dello sviluppo, le Ong, gruppi religiosi, accademici,
filosofi, economisti, capi d'impresa, gruppi giovanili e
femminili, in 49 paesi africani e non. Nel rapporto della
Commissione, pubblicato oggi, abbiamo quel piano. Il rapporto
s'intitola "Il nostro interesse comune", ed è
questo interesse comune a cui lavorerò nel corso delle
presidenze britanniche sia del G8 che dell'Ue per realizzare un
cambiamento per l'Africa. Il supporto dell'Italia in entrambe le
organizzazioni sarà essenziale. Mi auguro leggiate il
rapporto; credo che ciò che emerga sia la robusta analisi
dei problemi e la ampia e ambiziosa natura delle soluzioni
proposte. Questo non è un rapporto espresso nel solito
linguaggio diplomatico. È eccezionalmente schietto circa i
fallimenti dei governi e delle politiche sia in Africa che nel
mondo. La povertà e la stagnazione africane sono la più
grande tragedia del nostro tempo. È un fatto inaccettabile
che l'Africa continui a rimanere sempre più indietro
quando, come mostra il nostro rapporto, le politiche giuste
potrebbero generare tassi di crescita economica fino al 7%,
mettendo l'Africa in carreggiata per conseguire gli obiettivi del
2015 per lo sviluppo nell'ambito degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo del
Millennio fissati dalla comunità internazionale nel
2000. Il 2005 è il momento di agire, non soltanto
perché ci sono dei programmi internazionali ma perché
l'Africa sta compiendo progressi. Nell'ultimo decennio, 16 paesi
dell'Africa sub-sahariana hanno registrato tassi di crescita di
oltre il 4%. Più dei due terzi hanno avuto elezioni
pluripartitiche. L'Unione africana sta assumendo un ruolo guida,
soprattutto nella costruzione della pace e della sicurezza
attraverso una politica di "non indifferenza", contro
la vecchia non interferenza della precedente organizzazione
dell'Unione africana. Ma ci sono ancora enormi sfide. La
catastrofe dell'Aids ne è un esempio. Il rapporto della
Commissione è un'onesta valutazione di queste sfide.
L'Africa è il continente più fortemente colpito
dall'epidemia dell'Hiv/Aids: 20 milioni di africani sono già
morti di questa malattia. In alcuni paesi, il 40% della gente ha
contratto l'infezione. La probabilità di vita scenderà
presto a soli 30 anni. Un altro esempio è la guerra in
Sudan: per lo meno 2 milioni di persone sono morte nel conflitto
nord-sud del Sudan negli ultimi 21 anni e altri milioni ne hanno
subito le conseguenze. Sappiamo che la comunità
internazionale può e deve offrire maggiori risorse
affinché l'Africa possa cogliere quest'opportunità.
La Commissione chiede il raddoppio degli aiuti e la cancellazione
del 100% del debito per i paesi che ne hanno bisogno. Questo non
è gettare denaro dietro i problemi. Nel rapporto si
dimostra come questo denaro può venire assorbito e
impiegato validamente. E in maniera altrettanto importante, il
rapporto mostra in che modo la comunità internazionale
deve eliminare gli ostacoli allo sviluppo africano, a esempio
abolendo le sovvenzioni e il protezionismo dei paesi ricchi nel
settore agricoltura e anche riducendo le barriere commerciali
interne in Africa. Questo, assieme alla crescita che migliorerà
la capacità produttiva dell'Africa, è necessario
per agevolare l'attività commerciale africana in un
sistema internazionale più equo. A livello bilaterale,
Regno Unito e Italia stanno facendo il possibile per aiutare. I
nostri due governi stanno collaborando strettamente sulla
politica relativa all'Hiv/Aids in Africa. Il governo italiano ha
dimostrato un particolare impegno nei confronti del mantenimento
della pace in Sudan, e confidiamo di compiere ulteriori progressi
per migliorare la capacità africana di mantenimento della
pace. L'Italia inoltre è stata attiva negli ultimi anni
relativamente all'iniziativa per i Paesi altamente indebitati e
allo sgravio del debito, concludendo accordi sulla remissione del
debito con 17 paesi africani, dal Benin all'Uganda. L'Italia si è
poi impegnata a raggiungere entro il 2006 il livello minimo
fissato dalla Ue dello 0,33% del Pil in aiuti, per muoversi poi
verso lo 0,7%. Ma tutti noi dobbiamo fare di più. Gli
investimenti servono subito, quindi si devono trovare modi per
colmare il divario. Gordon Brown ha illustrato un modo in cui
farlo, mediante l'International finance facility, che
raccoglierebbe altri aiuti in denaro mediante il leveraging dei
mercati di capitale e l'emissione di obbligazioni. Accolgo con
favore il sostegno del ministro delle Finanze Siniscalco a questa
iniziativa; ora dobbiamo operare uniti per tramutarla in realtà.
Le basi per un'azione devono tuttavia essere in Africa. Gli
africani devono determinare il futuro del continente. Due
elementi essenziali sono la pace e la sicurezza e sistemi di
governo trasparenti e responsabili dotati di risorse per agire a
livello locale e nazionale. Al centro dell'orientamento della
Commissione c'è anche la gente, con l'istruzione e la
sanità a ogni livello come elementi essenziali per la
realizzazione dei diritti della gente. Riunendo tutte queste
questioni in un unico piano, che non sia un elenco da cui
"scegliere solo il meglio", il rapporto ci offre una
base di lavoro comune. Come riconosciamo nel rapporto che le
soluzioni devono tenere conto delle diversità dell'Africa,
così credo che i componenti della comunità
internazionale, iniziando con il vertice del G8 di quest'anno,
saranno in grado di offrire il loro particolarissimo contributo
per il raggiungimento degli obiettivi illustrati dalla
Commissione.
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10
marzo 2005
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THE
STANDARD Government urges donors to soften foreign aid
terms Thursday March 10, 2005 Tom Mogusu
The
Government yesterday appealed to the donor community to soften
conditionalities attached to their loans to African countries. Mr
Donald Kibera, the Director of External Resources Department in
the Ministry of Finance said most of the conditionalities were
detrimental to the improvement of living standards in recipient
countries. "The conditionalities are often in conflict
with the principle of country ownership," Kibera
said. "Donors therefore need to align all conditions with
the recipient country’s poverty reduction strategy." The
push to put a stop to conditionalities was part of the Rome
declaration that all development partners endorsed in February
2003. Kibera said the conditionalities were partly to blame
for the continued rise in the level of impoverishment in the
developing world. He was speaking at a Nairobi hotel during
the opening of a Japanese government-sponsored consultative
seminar on Official Development Assistance (ODA). The seminar
was attended by senior Government officers and representatives of
key Japanese development agencies. "We would like our
development partners, including the Government of Japan, to
harmonise their practices and other procedures used in lending
out funds," Kibera said. This, he said, was important if
the desire to reduce the transaction costs that are normally
associated with aid delivery is to be realised. Kenya is
currently one of the leading recipients of Japanese aid, with the
cumulative assistance standing at about Sh270 billion. The
assistance covers priority areas of co-operation such as economic
infrastructure, education, human resource development, health,
environmental conservation and rural development. In 2003,
Kenya received a total of US$43 million in Japanese assistance.
This was in the form of grant aid and technical
cooperation. Kibera however suggested that time was ripe for
the donor community to increase aid inflows to Kenya in line with
the country’s monetary commitments. There is also a need
for the donor community to use knowledge management more
effectively to better disseminate good practices on
harmonisation. Projects should also be aligned to managing and
realising results, Kibera said. "There are concerns that
donor countries should ensure that their field representatives
and staff have the necessary commitment, flexibility, authority
and expertise to achieve results." While continuing to
use project financing, Kibera said that there was also a need to
increase use modalities are that are flexible in the dispersion
of aid. The Government has also asked donors to fund the
development of capacity in public and community-based
organisations.
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7
marzo 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Cancel Third World debts, says
Maathai Publication Date: 3/6/2005 Story by KWAMBOKA
OYARO
Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai has called upon
developed countries to cancel debts owed by Third World
countries. Addressing delegates at the United Nations
Conference on the Status of Women in New York, Prof Wangari said
servicing debts continued to impoverish the already poor
countries. "This is punishing poor countries and women.
Reducing poverty is one of the Millennium Development Goals but
this can't be achieved without capital. We must all aspire to
make poverty history." To show their commitment in
poverty reduction, Prof Maathai asked developed countries to open
their markets for accessibility by developing countries as "this
is fair trade''. She dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to all
women. "Sisters, this wasn't an individual effort but a
symbol of all of us. It was given to recognise women and the
efforts we have made over the years." She said her Green
Belt Movement that won the prize was born during consultations by
Kenyan women as they prepared for the women's first conference in
Mexico in 1975. Then, the greatest concern of the country's
rural women and the message they wanted taken to Mexico was the
need for clean drinking water, nutritious food, sufficient income
and fuel [firewood]. "Thirty years after that conference
that set the agenda for women's issues, we are still relating
environmental issues to women. With global climatic change there
is adverse impact on women as availability of water becomes
scarce, yet deforrestation continues unabated," Prof Maathai
told delegates who filled the conference room and spilled over to
a second room and enthusiastically applaused their heroine. To
advance this, Maathi has picked 'Mutainai', a Japanese word, to
spearhead her global campaign for environmental
sustainability. 'Mutainai' means reducing consumption,
reusing, recycling and repair - a summary of the four "R"
principles for the conservation of resources. "Wars are
fought over resources. It is time we started to manage our
resources efficiently and share them equitably to ensure peace
reigns," she said, holding a T-shirt bearing Mutainai. She
adopted the name after she visited Japan recently and talked
about the four "R's" and was told that the name
described all the four principles.
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1
marzo 2005
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THE
DAILY NATION Kenya to Benefit From Sh2,720bn IDA
Funding February 26, 2005
Kenya is among 81
countries targeted by a Sh2,720 billion fund from the World Bank
through the International Development Association. Major
donors have agreed to provide the funds for development
assistance to poor countries through the 14th replenishment of
the Association. This is the first concrete step in bringing
resources to the poorest countries, the World Bank said in a
statement, released in Nairobi yesterday. The Association is a
World Bank affiliate that provides assistance to the world's
poorest countries. Sh1,440 billion will be new contributions from
40 donor countries. "This represents, at a minimum, a 25 per
cent increase in overall resources over the previous
replenishment, and is the largest expansion of the IDA
(International Development Association) resources in two
decades," the statement said. While donor countries made
firm financial commitments to the replenishment, the statement
said, some are still exploring the possibility of increasing
their pledges to reach the 30 per cent target supported at the
Athens IDA deputies meeting. World Bank President James
Wolfensohn was quoted in the statement as saying: "IDA is
the lifeline for many of the world's poorest people and this
increase in IDA |